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Needs List

The mission of Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter is to provide a safe haven, high-quality care and hope for the future to children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected. Your in-kind donations are a valuable resource that helps reduce our daily operating costs and supplies much-needed items and activities for the children we serve.

Currently, we have very limited storage space and staff to process clothing donations, therefore we are asking donors to limit gently used donations to items identified on our current needs list.

Needs List

The mission of Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter is to provide a safe haven, high-quality care and hope for the future to children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected. Your in-kind donations are a valuable resource that helps reduce our daily operating costs and supplies much-needed items and activities for the children we serve.

Currently, we have very limited storage space and staff to process clothing donations, therefore we are asking donors to limit gently used donations to items identified on our current needs list.

The Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter depends upon the kindness of volunteers to help provide a safe place for the thousands of kids who have found refuge there. The volunteers, who give their time, play a large role in making it possible for the shelter to be a place where the hurt can begin to heal.

Needs Lists

The mission of Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter is to provide a safe haven, high-quality care and hope for the future to children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected. Your in-kind donations are a valuable resource that helps reduce our daily operating costs and supplies much-needed items and activities for the children we serve.

Currently, we have very limited storage space and staff to process clothing donations, therefore we are asking donors to limit gently used donations to items identified on our current needs list.

To Drop Off Donations:

Monday-Friday
8:00am – 5:00pm

The Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter offers dynamic and collaborative case management services to every child. Our team of case managers are responsible for assessing the unique and changing needs of each child and determining the best ways to meet those needs. Utilizing service providers in the the Northwest Arkansas community, case managers work to build a foundation of improved emotional, physical, social and mental health for each child.

Throughout a child’s stay at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, case managers track and follow his/her progress and work to maintain communication with the team of people involved in the child’s care including NWACS staff, health care providers, mental health providers, educators, CASA volunteers, DHS case workers, attorneys, etc.

By establishing safety, connection and rapport with each child, the case managers strive to address the ever-changing needs of this unique population, ultimately hoping to pave the way for smooth transition for each child as he/she leaves the Shelter.

Everyday the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The normalcy and continuity of it leads us to take it for granted most days. When you work or volunteer at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter (NWACS), you see this gift of beauty and light everyday, signalling a new day. Amazingly enough, the sun is only one gift we see on a daily basis. Inside NWACS, we see transformations happening with each child that is in our care. With the sun, these children get to start fresh everyday. A new day to make better choices. A new day to learn how to read. A new day to interact with their peers. A new day to work towards a brighter future.

Bentonville, AR (January 12, 2017) — The Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter announced today that nonprofit leader Maury Peterson will become its new executive director effective January 16, 2017. Peterson, former Executive Director at Parenting Journey, a Boston-based, national nonprofit focused on building stronger families, brings 25 years of domestic and international nonprofit, foundation and corporate philanthropy experience to the Shelter.

“Choosing the right person to lead the Children’s Shelter is one of the most important decisions we make as a Board, and we are confident in selecting Maury as our next Executive Director,” explained Board President Emily Reynolds. “The Board is excited about the energy, passion and experience Maury brings to our organization, and we look forward to continuing our mission of service to the children of Arkansas under her proven leadership.”

Peterson has a passion for and a long history of working with children and families.

“I am honored and humbled to join such a committed team and Board at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter. I look forward to building on the great work already achieved as we meet our mission to provide a safe haven, high-quality care, and hope for the future to the most vulnerable members of community – children who have been abandoned, abused and neglected,” said Peterson.

In addition to her work at Parenting Journey, Peterson spent nearly 12 years as head of the Grand Circle Foundation. During her tenure, she awarded $50 million in grants to schools and nonprofits in the US and in more than 30 countries. Peterson also worked for a variety of children’s causes in Mauritius, Switzerland, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University and a Master of Science degree in Social Work (MSSW) from the University of Texas at Austin.

About the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter

Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter is a private, non-profit organization, located in Bentonville, Arkansas that provides 24-hour emergency residential care to children and teens from across Arkansas who are victims of abuse or neglect. In its 21st year, the 48-bed Children’s Shelter, which currently serves about 500 children per year, has cared for more than 7,700 children since opening its doors in 1993. Children receive care for up to 45 days or until they can be placed in foster care or safely return to their families.

As always, this Thursday the Children’s Shelter has a lot to be thankful for! Here are just a few from the past week:

Hershey Easter Party

The Hershey team came out to the shelter on Tuesday to have an Easter Party with the kiddos and the Hershey Kiss mascot tagged along! The kids got to enjoy Easter Egg Hunt Bag Decorating, an egg relay, and of course…AN EASTER EGG HUNT! Hershey also brought along one of the biggest tubs of candy I think any of us had ever seen!

The kids had a blast hunting eggs and trading them out for candy from the tub, but I think the staff had more fun watching!

Arkansas Razorback Football Team

Last Friday a few players from the Arkansas Razorback Football team came out to hang with the kids, sign some autographs and do a few fade routes. The kids were excited to have them on hand and the players were all smiles while they were here. We can’t thank them enough!

Walton Family Foundation Grant

This week we received a grant from the Walton Family Foundation in the amount of $5,000! The grant is going to Operational Support for Children in need of Shelter. Thank you to the Walton Family Foundation for their continued support!

Walton College and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority

“Earlier this year, the Walton College of Business partnered with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority as part of the sorority’s Squeaky Clean program.

The groups stuffed 500 bags with essential toiletries and hygiene products for kids at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter. Students were asked to donate extra travel-sized toiletries and other essential products in time for the girls of Zeta Phi Beta and Walton volunteers to donate the bags on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, said Barbara Lofton, director of diversity and inclusion with the Walton College.”

Thank you to Walton College and the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority for thinking about our kiddos!

Thankful Thursday will be an on-going blog series which gets posted weekly on…you guessed it, Thursday’s. Each blog post will consist of the previous week’s “thankfulness”, meaning that we will be highlighting donations, volunteers and grants that we receive!

We have so much to be thankful for in our community and this is a small way we can give back.

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Our Mission

The mission of the Northwest Arkansas Children's Shelter is to provide a safe haven, high-quality care and hope for the future to children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected.